Iron Horse Literary Review publishes photography that not only demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of form, perspective, and lighting, but also a skilled eye, one which recognizes and captures ordinary experiences as universal moments. We’re interested in a variety of photography: we publish photographs of still lifes, nature, and human subjects. However, we’re looking for "photographic essays"—a series of photos with a narrative line and a common theme. We also like some prose text to accompany each photo, as well as a brief introduction to the "essay."

Accepted photographic essays do receive an honorarium.

To view a sample from our current issue, click here.

Iron Horse Literary Review publishes fiction that earns a deliberate rather than dismissive read. To this end, we look for fiction that was written carefully, demonstrates a mature understanding of literature, and reveals the writer’s control over language and narrative. We do not accept work that merely relates an emotional tale. The story must be crafted by a skilled writer and engage the reader’s intelligence, imagination, and sense of humanity.

More specifically, we enjoy stories with believable plots, developed characters, consistent points-of-view, vivid and symbolic settings, true dialogue, and thought-provoking themes. But a good fiction writer also knows how to use figurative language, the sound of words, and the rhythm of prose sentences—techniques that grant prose the musical qualities of poetry.

Finally, we’re looking for writers who know how to exit a story. Whether a fiction manuscript drops or lifts during its resolution, we want the stories we publish to capture, as Frederick Busch says, "that gorgeous moment when a solution precipitates into a crystal, and something is changed forever."

Iron Horse will consider stories of all lengths. Often we run longer stories in a serial format. Accepted manuscripts will receive honoraria.

Besides Frederick Busch, some of our favorite short fiction writers include Toni Cade Bambara, Charles Baxter, Raymond Carver, Kelly Cherry, Michael Cunningham, Pam Houston, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Bharati Mukherjee.

To read some fiction excerpts from our current issue, click here.

Iron Horse Literary Review publishes poetry that transforms the ordinary into amazing insight. To this end, we look for poems whose vivid imagery and literal scenarios provide easy access into the poems but ultimately distill into the universal issues humans grapple with. We hope the poems in Iron Horse, then, do not merely attempt to evoke an emotional response but also engage the reader’s intelligence.

Furthermore, we select poems written by skilled poets who know how to manipulate diction, line breaks, meter, rhyme, voice, and tone as a way of controlling a poem’s overall meaning. A good poet has studied the tradition of poetic conventions and understands how contemporary poets have built upon and enhanced that tradition.

Though we are looking for a variety of poetry (we enjoy poems that are humorous, satiric, somber, or uplifting), we will not publish poetry that incorporates rhyme in an unsophisticated manner (i.e., Hallmark verse), that is merely confessional, or that is purposefully obtuse.

We do not have length requirements for poetry, though we will not print any poem that severely limits the number of other poems we can include in each issue. Accepted poems will receive honoraria.

Some of our favorite poets include Lucille Clifton, James Dickey, Carolyn Forché, Maxine Kumin, Li-Young Lee, Pablo Neruda, Gary Soto, Thomas Lux, and James Wright.

Iron Horse Literary Review publishes creative non-fiction that addresses specific but universal truths. To this end, we look for essays that honor personal experiences by conveying them in such detail that the personal blossoms into the universal. We seek essays that, despite the novelty of topic, make us feel a sense of déjà vu, the way metaphors strike a chord of recognition though they compare two normally unassociated objects. When we read creative non-fiction, we hope to say, Yes, we recognize that situation. We have lived similarly.

We will not accept non-fiction that merely evokes a certain emotion. The essay must be crafted by a skilled writer and engage the reader’s intelligence. More specifically, we enjoy non-fiction that offers believable characters, a true narrative voice, a consistent tone, vivid and symbolic imagery, thought-provoking themes, and poetic language. We expect the writers whose prose we publish to demonstrate an understanding of figurative language, the sound of words, and the rhythm of prose sentences.

Though we’re looking for a variety of non-fiction (we enjoy essays that are humorous, satiric, somber, or up-lifting), we will not publish works which analyze literature or focus upon scholarly interests. We prefer not to publish essays that address politically stale topics or that attempt to persuade the reader to believe certain ideologies.

Finally, we typically publish essays that are no longer than fifteen typed, double-spaced, manuscript pages. Accepted manuscripts receive honoraria.

Some of our favorite essayists include Annie Dillard, Joyce Kearns Goodwin, Frank McCourt, Lee Martin, Roger Rosenblatt, Richard Shelton, and Alice Walker.

Please submit all work to the following address: